Trainer Bob Durso knows about upsets, and he’s ready to spring one today when he sends out longshot Frisk Me Now against Silver Charm and 10 other hard-hitting veterans in the $500,000 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.

The Grade 1 event kicks off the inaugural ”NTRA Champions on Fox” series for older horses that concludes with the Pacific Classic in August and offers $5 million in bonus money. Fox will televise the Donn live from 4 to 5 p.m. as part of the network’s pre-Super Bowl coverage, with post time set for 4:40.

Two years ago almost to the day, on Feb. 2, 1997, Durso saddled Frisk Me Now, then a 3-year-old, in the Hutcheson at Gulfstream. Making his first stakes appearance, the son of Mister Frisky came from off the pace to pull a shocker, paying $213.80.

”I can’t forget it,” Durso said yesterday. ”(Track announcer) Tom Durkin called us approaching the quarter pole and said ‘that’s Frisk Me Now moving up.’ At the eighth pole he said we were ‘coming on strong.’ And then near the wire he yelled ‘Frisk Me Now is going to win it at 99-1!’

”Every now and then at home I put in the tape to watch again, it’s so exciting.”

Frisk Me Now won’t be 99-1 in the Donn, but he will be a solid price coming off a disappointing seventh-place finish at 3-1 in the Jan. 9 Broward Handicap at Gulfstream, his first start in five months.

”He had a sinus infection,” Durso said, explaining the layoff. ”We were planning on running in the Meadowlands Cup (in October) but found some mucous, treated him and ran out of time. Since it was going to be his last race for the season, we wound up skipping it and giving him extra time off.

”(In the Broward) he just came up a little short. I overestimated him. I thought he was tighter and he wasn’t.”

Since then, Durso has put the screws to Frisk Me Now in his morning drills, twice sending him a stiff half-mile. ”Pat (Day, who rides Frisk Me Now at 117 pounds) worked him first time (Jan. 18) when he went in :45.4, galloping out (five furlongs) in 58.1 and three-quarters in 1:11. He came back the other day (Jan. 25) and worked in :46.3, out in 59 and change. He seems to be physically and mentally 100 percent.”

To win the Donn Frisk Me Now will have to be at his best. Not only must the 5-year-old rebound off the Broward but he’s tackling the toughest field he’s faced since running fifth in the 1997 Preakness, won by Silver Charm.

Silver Charm, the ’97 Kentucky Derby champion and winner of last year’s $4 million Dubai World Cup, is the marquee horse of the Donn. According to trainer Bob Baffert, the charismatic gray son of Silver Buck is ”better than he’s ever been” after an easy victory in his first start this year, the San Pasqual Handicap at Santa Anita, in which Silver Charm displayed a new dimension by coming from well off the pace.

But the early favorite for 1999 Horse of the Year faces a daunting challenge today. Not only must he pack highweight of 126, giving away from 6 to 16 pounds, but he has to overcome the far outside post 12.

Even Baffert admits the Donn is no piece of cake. ”Every time (Silver Charm) runs,” he said, ”there’s no easy spot for him. People like to run against him because they know how much interest in the race he brings. Everybody wants to be part of it.”

”Everybody” includes hometown hero Sir Bear, winner of the Cigar Mile last November at Aqueduct and the Broward in his last two starts. Third in last year’s Donn, the 6-year-old gelding will be ridden by Jerry Bailey at 120 pounds. ”I think he’s going to win,” trainer Ralph Ziadie said this week.

California invader Puerto Madero, also at 120 with Kent Desormeaux flying in for the mount, could be the horse to beat. A hard-charging second last year to Skip Away in the MassCap and Hollywood Gold Cup, the South American import returned from a four-month layoff Dec. 20 to win the Native Diver Handicap at Hollywood going away.

Puerto Madero’s top-gun trainer, Dick Mandella, has sprung a few surprises in his time, such as snapping Cigar’s 16-race winning streak with Dare and Go in the ’96 Pacific Classic.

Behrens, a close second in the Broward making his first start since June, also deserves a look at 113 pounds with Jorge Chavez up.

But Frisk Me Now will be the most overlooked of the top contenders and Durso says he’s in the Donn to win, not just pick up a check.

”When this horse comes over there and he’s ready to run like he did in the Widener, Suburban, Ohio Derby and Pennsylvania Derby (Frisk Me Now’s biggest stakes victories), he’s capable of running with best,” Durso said. ”When he ran against Silver Charm in the Preakness he was not 100 percent, got hung five wide and still was beaten just half a dozen lengths. Otherwise he would have been right there.

”His Suburban last year was outstanding. If he’s ready to put in an effort like that, he’s going to be right there, and the way he’s trained I think he is.” *Last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Answer Lively, the likely 2-year-old champion and an early favorite for the Kentucky Derby, makes his ’99 debut today in the Lecomte Handicap at his winter quarters, the Fair Grounds in Louisiana. Another big 3-year-old prep, the Hutcheson, will be run tomorrow at Gulfstream Park, with Texas Glitter, Cat Thief and Bet Me Best the favorites in a seven-horse field. *Trainer Dennis Brida, president of the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, issued a bulletin yesterday asking Gov. George Pataki to reconsider his proposal to increase the betting tax on exotics in his new budget.

”Increasing the price of the product is not the best way to generate more sales,” Brida said. ”We…ask that (the governor) work with us to find ways to enhance racing in New York to generate additional race betting handle that can benefit every segment of the industry and government.”